For some, it’s “just” another year of the Fall Fair in Vanderhoof, but it’s definitely my first.
And it happened only at my second week in Vanderhoof as well — what great timing!
I had expected something similar to the rodeo shows I had seen as a kid during a family trip to Williams Lake, while flipping through this year’s booklet produced by our beloved newspaper. Alas, the almost half-a-century-old Nechako Valley Fall Exhibition proved to be much more interesting.
To be fair, it is difficult to compare a journalistic experience, which means all sense were tingling at full awareness, with a childhood memory that I could only recall the vestiges of.
What I found the most entertaining and engaging was the 4-H Audition. The West Coast Lumberjack Shows were certainly funny, the team roping and barrel races were exhilarating — especially when I was trying my hardest to capture flying lassos and swirling dirt in non-blurry photos. But my lips quirked in laughter and excitement with the calls of the auctioneer and the emcee’s lilting song of rising prices.
Nevertheless, the Fall Fair had kicked off with an adrenaline-filled start on Friday morning as our office received a call that sent me out the door, camera and recorder in hand, within seconds.
(Is that why being a reporter is such a great disguise for Clark Kent? Where else can you rush out the door during work with no questions asked?)
An accident with a horse-drawn cart had happened. On the way I took two wrong turns. Who knew it could be so easy to get lost in Vanderhoof!
To another great year of Fall Fair!
Vivian Chui